Page:Edgar Jepson--the four philanthropists.djvu/297

Rh to let himself grow violent; it made him perspire.

"This is the situation," I said sulkily. "We know a crowd that is working against Pudleigh. to get hold of the Quorley Granite Company, and they're stuck for want of three thousand shares. I have made clear to the chief of them—I saw no use in telling him that it was myself—that if one of the directors died, his shares would come on the market. He chose you as the proper director to die, because you hold five thousand shares, and so many thrown on the market at once would knock them down again."

"Yes, yes?" he said quickly, panting a little.

"Well, it seemed to me that if you would sell three thousand at eighteenpence to a friend of mine, you would be out of danger."

He laughed a shaky, quavering laugh, and mopped again at his brow. I saw the brazen honesty, which had been ousted from his face by rage and terror, stealing back over it, and he said, "You have introduced new methods into the business world! To think that I was to be sacrificed for a paltry block of three thousand shares in a dirty little company of Pudleigh's! Why—why didn't they come and make me an offer for them? I would have parted with them gladly— gladly." And the brazen honesty shone out on his face once more with the old triumphant lustre.